First up is a snap from a “professional” walker. It’s all, “Try these seats,” as if they’d be better than BART seats. (NB: They are better than BART seats.) But you know, some riders will take offense at this profit-seeking insult to transit, and also with the half covered over windows. Most BART ads aren’t like this:

And there’s this: “We all drive.” But you know, that’s not exactly true, now is it, Ford?

I’ll tell you, these ads appear to be custom-made for BART. I don’t think you’ll see them anywhere else in the world.

Of course our SFMTA simply despises the UBER Lyft, for various reasons, but that doesn’t mean that it will turn down some cold hard cash from major corporations. And then, when the SFMTA has some extra ad space, which is a lot of the time since its rates are too high, it’ll put UBER Lyft in its place with stuff like this:

1. Go to the right, as shown, but sometimes there’s not enough room to do so.

2. Go to the left, but sometimes there’s not enough room to do so.

3. Go into the left lane, but there’s a huge wheel-swallowing gap in the road for the huge metal BART/MUNI subway grate, and if you fall down and get run over by a streetcar, a member of the SFPD just might say you weren’t riding “in the bike lane.”

4. Line up behind the stalled bus like you’re a car driver, for 10 to 150 seconds.

I’ve done all four.

(I understand about where the BART entrances are placed, but I’d widen some lanes here in some places, at the expense of the (sorry, “urbanists”) overly wide sidewalks of Market Street…)

A. In 1962, I was in a tailor shop and had a conventional summer suit made from some white silk tweed that impressed me. But the suit was too hot for the summer. Then I began wearing it in December. People became annoyed by the sight of a white suit in winter. (Those were innocent times in 1962.) Soon I discovered I had this marvelous, harmless form of aggression going for me. So I branched out into white suits with double-vested weskits and rows of white-covered buttons. Getting dressed in the morning was suddenly fun.”

We are shuttle bus drivers for bus companies who have contracts with Facebook, Apple, Google, eBay, and more. We are mostly people of color. We live in communities such as East and West Oakland and Bayview/Hunter Point. We share your concerns about gentrification. The Bay Area’s skyrocketing rents and housing prices have pushed many of us out to Antioch, Pittsburg, Tracy, Manteca, and even farther.

Your efforts are hurting us, not helping. We are on the front lines of fighting income inequality in the high tech industry by organizing with the Teamsters union. In the last few months, over 225 of us at two shuttle bus companies won union elections. Those of us who drive for Facebook just won a union contract that includes $9/hour average wage increases, fully paid company health care, 5 weeks paid vacation, sick days, a pension, and higher pay for those of us who work split shifts.

In March, you attacked a Loop Transportation/Facebook bus that one of us was driving at MacArthur BART. You attacked a union bus driver for a good employer who pays good wages and benefits. That did not help our cause – it hurt it.

We call on you to join our efforts to hold high tech accountable to workers. If you want to make the economy work for struggling Bay Area families, then help the other drivers organize a union with us. Help push for affordable housing. But please don’t stop our buses.